Schools minister announces significant change that could allow summer babies to start school a year later

Parents with children born in the summer will welcome news from the Schools Minister Nick Gibb this week, as it was revealed that children born between April and August could now start school a year later.

The announcement about the change in school start dates will allow parents to choose to delay when their children enter their Reception year, if they think it will help and boost their child’s learning.

At the moment, children born in the summer are usually encouraged or asked to start school in September, despite being almost a year younger than their peers who were born in September or afterwards and therefore start school the following year.

The study, done by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, found ‘a positive relationship between school starting age and children’s cognitive development from age 6 to 15’.

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The BBC also released findings that showed that children born in the autumn were 25% more likely to get a place at either Oxford or Cambridge in the future, compared to summer-born applicants.

In light of the research and recent study Nick Gibb said: ‘The issue of summer born children is something that we are concerned about.’

‘I do accept there is a link between the month that your child is born and academic results, particularly in the early years of primary school and that’s why we want to give parents that option.’

‘We are looking now at the impact of changing the admissions code will have on the system as a whole and when the opportunity arises we will seek to change the admissions code to give parents more discretion over when their child will start school.’